Republican Rep. Peter King: ‘We are the ones who shut down the government’

At least one Republican member of Congress is admitting that his party is to blame for shutting down the federal government.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Rep. Peter King (R) bucked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and his party’s standard talking points and told host Chris Wallace that Republicans “are the ones who shut down the government.”

“I’m talking basically about Ted Cruz, who was saying if we [voted in the House to defund] Obamacare, he could manage to both keep the government open and defund Obamacare,” King explained. “The fact is, it was done in the House and the government is now closed and Obamacare is going forward. This was a strategy that never could work. It was almost sort of a nullification, to say we’re going to shut down the government if we don’t defund a law that we don’t like.”

“If we want to defund something, we should repeal it,” he continued. “And do it the same way the president got it signed: elect Republicans to both Houses of Congress, repeal it and then have a Republican president sign it. This was a strategy doomed to failure.”

As for the Republicans who were blaming the Democrats and the president for shutting down the government, King said that he just wasn’t buying into that argument.

“We are the ones who did shut the government down,” he insisted. “You don’t take the dramatic step of shutting down the government unless you have a real strategy.”

About the Author

David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. His work can also be found at Crooks & Liars, and he's also been published at The BRAD BLOG. He came to Raw Story after working as a network manager for the state of North Carolina and as as engineer developing enterprise resource planning software. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidEdwards.